CAPSULE:
Batman is pulled out of his self-imposed
retirement to face two villains. Bane is a big bull
of a man in a really ugly mask. The other is Catwoman,
particularly attractive in her skintight suit. The
film has more action, more special effects, and more
mystical philosophy than THE DARK KNIGHT, but less
intelligence. And as successful as Christopher Nolan
has been with his "Batman" trilogy, the films do not
stack up to his INCEPTION and particularly not his THE
PRESTIGE. Still, this is a reasonable farewell to
Nolan's "Batman" films. Rating: low +2 (-4 to +4) or
7/10

A spoiler section follows the main body of the review.

The Nolan brothers, Christopher and Jonathan, are erudite
filmmakers who, even while working in films in mass-appeal genres,
usually do it with intelligence and wit. Certainly THE DARK KNIGHT
RISES is a deeper and more intelligent film than is the recent film
THE AVENGERS. Unfortunately, while it is ornate, complex, long,
and their most costly film to date, it is the low-point of the
Nolan's recent films. While THE DARK KNIGHT had engaging moral
dilemmas, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is a much more shallow film even
more than it first appears. It is full of pseudo-mystical insights
and Zen-like aphorisms masquerading as wisdom. It resorts too
often to clichés. It leaves the viewer with too little to chew on
after giving him much too much to swallow.

I would not presume to try here to cover much of the plot of this
164-minute, fast-moving film. On the eighth anniversary of Harvey
Dent's death (shown in THE DARK KNIGHT), Bruce Wayne (played again
by Christian Bale) has given his life over to brooding about the
past and his lost love (also from THE DARK KNIGHT). Wayne could
retire as Batman because crime has all but disappeared from Gotham
after the Dent Act was passed to imprison all dangerous criminals.
There are, however, two new costumed foes on the horizon. One is
the terrorist leader Bane (Tom Hardy) and the other is Catwoman
(Anne Hathaway). The former is a beefy villain in what looks like
a Cthulhu mask, the latter is a well-proportioned woman in a skin-
tight cat suit. In chasing Bane, Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman)
is shot and spends much of the film in a hospital bed. Replacing
him in working with Batman is patrolman John Blake (Joseph Gordon-
Levitt), soon promoted to be a full-fledged detective.

The Nolan brothers' story is not as carefully and tightly written
as the previous scripts by the pair. Blake quickly deduces that
Bruce Wayne is the super-secret identity of Batman. That's okay.
By the end of the film just about everybody who is anybody in this
film will know that Batman and Wayne are one and the same. It
seems a pity since Wayne sacrificed so much to protect his secret
in THE DARK KNIGHT. Possibly Wayne saw SPIDER MAN 2 and just
decided that he could be really sloppy with all the secrecy. Once
again we have Morgan Freeman playing Fox (as in "clever like
a..."), the Batman equivalent of James Bond's Q. The premise is
that he gives Batman weapons that Wayne Enterprises has built for
the military, yet nobody in government who ever approved their
development ever recognizes the Bat-vehicles and draws the
connection between Wayne Enterprises and Batman. But that is yet
one more potential leak of the super-secret identity. And there is
some question as to whether Fox is doing Batman so much good. Bane
and Batman learned fighting from the same master. Yet while Batman
has his body armor and Bane seems to have mostly just bare skin
they seem about evenly matched. It is clear Bane must just be the
better fighter. That body armor is very useful against machine
guns but only because the attackers never seem to think to aim for
that light oval between Batman's nose and his chin. Lucky thing!
The Nolan brothers have the usual witticisms in battle. Unlikely
and inappropriate as they are, they have become a required part of
superhero writing. Man fighting Catwoman: "Do those high heels
make it hard to walk?" Catwoman, kicking him with her heel, "Do
they?" I suppose his question is a good one; other than a hooker
what woman goes into action wearing high heels? But the
combination of the darkness of the new superhero films and cute
comments does not really work.

There are more problems with the script. Nobody on the streets of
Gotham seems to be dressed for cold weather. It looks like maybe
late spring in the city. However, when the plot calls for it,
suddenly the river is iced over. But at least there are some Zen-
like maxims to think about before the next violence drives them
from your mind. Certainly compared to THE AVENGERS earlier this
summer, this is a deeper film with a more complex plot. That is
not setting the bar very high.

Not surprisingly the cast is big and familiar. I will not bother
to list the notable actors on the payroll. Tom Hardy's voice
sounded like it had an extremely variable Brian Cox-like accent.
That was when I could understand at all what he was saying. The
sound of his voice seemed muddy even though it was obviously added
with Additional Dialog Recording. His performance as chief villain
is a letdown after Heath Ledger's Joker. For no obvious reason
Gary Oldman seems to have been pushed aside so that Joseph Gordon-
Levitt could effectively play his role. It was almost like someone
decided to have less Oldman and more Gordon-Levitt. It is hard to
tell which is more muddled and indistinct, Bane's voice or the
political statements the film makes.

Hans Zimmer's score did not seem to have much noticeable melody.
When one considers the contribution Zimmer made to films like
CRIMSON TIDE it is a pity he is doing less melody. Here his music
seems mostly just to add texture (and to make it harder to
understand Bane).

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES completes Christopher Nolan's "Batman"
trilogy with something of a mixed bag of virtues and faults. I
have heard that Christian Bale also plans to leave the series.
Expect another reboot in three or four years. In spite of many
problems, Nolan's interpretation will be a hard act for any other
director to follow. I rate THE DARK KNIGHT RISES a low +2 on the
-4 to +4 scale or 7/10.

Spoiler... Spoiler... Spoiler...

There is a principle in mystery films. If there is one
extraneous character who seems to have no purpose in the plot, then
that is your killer. It works just fine here.

Remember that in the first STAR WARS, Han Solo has decided not
to take part in the attack on the Deathstar? He goes off to pursue
his own ends. Then at just the right moment he returns and saves
the day? Tell me if you are not reminded of that in this film.

Speaking of recycling of plot elements from other films, did we
need yet another suspense film with a ticking time bomb that
somehow has to be eliminated? Come on, Nolans.

It seems either a major sequence was omitted or Batman has the
ability to teleport thousands of miles and right into a city whose
borders have been sealed.

A nuclear detonation that near Gotham (which is obviously New
York City) might not kill anyone right off, but unless there is
something I am missing I believe the electromagnetic pulse from the
explosion would fry all the electronics in Gotham. That would be a
huge disaster nationwide. It would destroy financial records kept
in the city. People on hospital life support would die. Computers
and cell phones would become worthless. It would be a long time
before electrical power would be returned and much longer before
the country recovered, if ever. They made the point that the
detonation was near enough to see. Also I believe a mushroom cloud
is a dry land phenomenon. On water you would get a billowing
sphere.